Elevator confessions
by Marina Ka-Fai
Summary: Jerome Clarke was definitely unpredictable and filled with mysteries. [HOA One-Shot Day 2019]


Disclaimer: House of Anubis belongs to Hans Bourlon and to Gert Verhulst.

Summary:  Jerome Clarke was definitely unpredictable and filled with mysteries. [HOA One-Shot Day 2019]

Author's note: This is a translation of a one-shot I wrote as a reply to a writing challenge from the French Facebook page "Bibliothèque de Fictions" about the " unexpected" theme. The rules were: write at least 100 words, two characters are in an elevator, an unexpected move. I decided to translate it for the House of Anubis One-Shot Day of 2019, an initiative taken by artsoccer. As you might have guessed, I'm not English nor American, English isn't my first language and I can make mistakes, even if I'm good in English and using Grammarly as support. Please feel free to tell me how to improve.

**Elevator confessions**

To find himself alone with Mara Jaffray in an elevator after an argument, Jerome Clarke would have definitely done without it, thank you very much. Not that he didn't regret the situation between them, because he did, but he wasn't sorry about his words:

Jerome Clarke was a manipulator, a schemer and a bit of a liar too, but the way Mara's boyfriend treated her was driving him crazy.

Oh, Mick wasn't violent but Mara was more like a good pal, the one who timed him during his training and helped him with his homework. The mere fact that she had proved she knew more about sports than him, the athlete, had led him to say she had cheated, in front of everybody. He knew his girlfriend so well he ignored her parents were renowned athletes. Mara's feelings for Mick were crystal clear. If Mick had any for her, he hid them well. And beyond that couple he didn't understand anything about because they were so different from one another, with non-existent chemistry, beyond the waste of a woman it made of Mara, Jerome bitterly admitted he was jealous. Except for Alfie, only a handful of people truly cared about him.

Ah, this blessed attention he never got from his absent father, from his mother who left him to rot in a boarding school at five years old, how did he yearn for it!

And Mara seemed to understand him.

To understand him really.

To understand him to a level even Alfie didn't reach.

Mick's absence had been a blessing...

And when he returned, despite the fact that she stated she was his friend, Mara had left him behind and threw herself in his arms, leaving Jerome with the acrid feeling of having been a replacement, even if involuntary.

"Your boyfriend is obtuse, he uses you, he walks all over you but apparently, you enjoy being a bland doormat!"

That was mean, that was hurtful, especially considering all the efforts she had made to win Mick's heart as soon as she had heard he found her a bit too common before they got together. Yet another proof against the other idiot. Mara was so much better when she was herself.

Did he love Mara?

Jerome didn't know and deep down, it didn't matter. It could justify his childish jealousy, it did not excuse his words against her.

"Mara..." He tried, his voice shaking more than he would have liked

She ignored him.

"The silent treatment, huh? I deserved it after all. Listen. I do not regret any of the words I said about Mick.'

He felt her eyes on him, revolver eyes. It stung.

"But I am sorry I told you-you were bland and to have compared you to a doormat. That was mean. I admit it. You aren't bland, Mara. I mean it. Feel free to believe me or not but I wanted you to know that I regret that part of... our word joust."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Jerome Clarke is apologizing? That's a first."

She could read in his eyes how sincere he was. She sighed.

"I forgive you. For that part at least. I just don't understand why my couple obsesses you so much."

"If I tell you why we are going to argue again."

"You are not the first one to tell me we don't have anything in common, that it isn't going to work. Patricia told me so."

"I knew I had a good reason to like her."

"Jerome!"

He raised his hands in the air, smirking.

"See? I can't speak of it without angering you."

The doors opened, he let her pass before following her.

"Mara?"

"Yes?"

She turned back to face him only to have a kiss stolen from her, a kiss as light as it was fast.

"What the?!"

"With the hope of making you forget about the athlete:" He said, laughing, before running away

"Jerome!" Mara grumbled

Well, she definitely wasn't able to hold a grudge against him for long, she knew the character he was all too well. But if she hadn't had her cheeks so red, if she hadn't been so embarrassed, she would have sworn that she had liked this and this embrace, as quick as it was, troubled her more than any romantic gesture Mick would have done for her.

**The End**


End file.
